Early life

Career

In 1987, Zaman set up the State of Bengal group in London after a visit to Noakhali, Bangladesh, where he interacted with traditional folk musicians and dancers. Original members of the group included his youngest brother Deeder Zaman (later became vocalist of Asian Dub Foundation) who was 7, and MC Mushtaq (later became the lead rapper for Fun-Da-Mental) who was 15. Outside of the State of Bengal project, Zaman also worked with British Asian youth groups, setting up music training workshops. After working in a variety of communities from across the country, they founded a record company called Betelnut Productions.